


The Rainbow Mezuzah

by Benga, khaleesikraken



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers Family, Bucky Barnes is more or less recovered and nothing hurts, Everyone is Jewish and queer, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Jewish Character, Jewish Comics Day, Judaism, Multi, Shabbat, femme!Steve, jewishcomicsday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 14:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7057024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Benga/pseuds/Benga, https://archiveofourown.org/users/khaleesikraken/pseuds/khaleesikraken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Miriam finds herself stranded in Brooklyn, just before sundown on Shabbat, she knocks on a friendly door and finds something unexpected.</p><p>(So Sam and Bucky host Shabbat dinner at their apartment every week, and our POV character stumbles upon it! And then Avengers fluff.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Rainbow Mezuzah

Miriam looked at the dead dashboard lights and resisted the urge to hit her head against the steering wheel. Her car had broken down. 

Again. 

That part wasn’t particularly surprising--she loved the old girl dearly, but at this point she was on a first name basis with about half the tow truck drivers in New York. Though usually it had the good manners to die in front of her apartment, or at work, or at a friend’s house. Miriam sighed. That run of luck had to end sooner or later, but she really wished it hadn’t ended with her getting stranded in the middle of Brooklyn at sunset. What a perfect way to end the workweek.

“This is fine,” she muttered to herself as she took out her phone to, yet again, call for a tow. “I didn’t need that paycheck for anything else, really.”

In keeping with the rest of her evening, her phone did not turn on. Miriam’s reflection looked back at her from the black screen with vaguely accusatory reproach. 

She’d forgotten to charge it.

Okay. No need to panic.  _ You’re just stuck in the middle of a totally unknown neighborhood with no car and no phone and it’s about to be night.  _

Miriam groaned. Jess was going to freak out if she didn’t get home soon. Her girlfriend was many good and lovely things, but she was a terrible worrier. There was nothing for it. She was going to have to knock on doors until someone let her borrow their phone.

Stepping out onto the cracked sidewalk pavement, Miriam pulled her jacket a little tighter against the biting wind and eyed the nearest apartments. Which place looked  _ least _ likely to contain a serial killer? As she walked towards the place with the freshest coat of paint, however, a small splash of color by a more worn doorway caught her eye. 

It was a mezuzah.

Painted like a rainbow. Almost garishly so, really.

Miriam blinked. Huh. That was a good sign, right? She shifted back and forth for a moment, undecided, before shaking her head and starting up the steps. Well, she had to knock on a stranger’s door one way or another. Might as well make it this one.

From inside the apartment came the sound of approaching footsteps.

“Please don’t be a murderer, please don’t be a murderer,” Miriam said.

The door pulled open to reveal--

Wow.

Miriam was  _ very _ happily committed, but the guy standing in the doorway was. Well. She was pretty sure she’d picked the right door, even if he  _ was  _ a murderer.

“Hello?” said the unreasonably attractive man.

“Um. Hi!” Miriam said with nervous wave. “I, uh--my car broke down, and my cell is dead, and, ah. Could I use your phone?”

“SAM!” A voice hollered from inside the apartment. “WHERE’D YOU GO? THE BREAD’S GONNA BURN!”

The man--Sam--turned away and shouted, “The bread’s fine, calm down!” He was wearing a flour-dusted apron, Miriam noticed.

“Sorry if I interrupted your dinner.”   


Sam waved away her apology. “Nah, you’re cool. Buck’s intense about his challah, that’s all. Normally I’d offer to call someone for you, but...”   


“Oh!” Miriam said. “Shabbat!”

He nodded. “But! Thankfully, we’ve got a goy on hand.” He turned and called into the house. “Hey, Tony! Could you do a work thing? We’re getting a little close to sundown, and there’s someone at the door who needs a hand.” 

Turning back to Miriam, Sam grinned. “Want to come in? He’ll be down in a second.”

Miriam grinned back and stepped inside, looking around. It was a cramped place, but it smelled amazing. Voices drifted down a narrow set of stairs, laughing and jeering and someone shouting about  _ that’s not what the rulebook says, Steve, the rulebook says I win! _

“Wow,” Miriam said. “Somebody’s enthusiastic.”

Sam snorted. “Tony’s a bit competitive. Just a bit. Can I get you something to drink while you wait?”

“Oh, I don’t th--”

And then.  _ Tony fucking Stark _ came down the stairs. He looked exactly like every magazine cover shoot she’d ever seen of him, except for how he was wearing sweatpants and a tank top. He was tugging a sweatshirt on, pulling it down over a blue light that must have been the arc reactor. He was also holding a fistful of Monopoly money.

“Is my table still intact?” Sam asked mildly.

“Ha!” Tony grinned, victorious. “If it isn’t, it’s only because Steve is a sore loser!”

“Uh,” Miriam said. She knew she was staring. She couldn’t stop. Tony Stark. “Uhhhh.”

Sam started to tell Tony about her situation but was interrupted by the voice from before shouting, “ ** _SAM! THE CHALLAH!_** ” The voice was followed immediately by its owner, who stalked into the room like a man on a mission. He had a metal arm. 

_ The Winter Soldier.  _

_ The Winter Soldier, and Iron Man. And. Steve.  _

_ Steve Rogers. _

_ Captain America. _

_ Oh. My. Gd. _

Miriam was pretty sure her brain was dribbling out of her ears.

“Chill out, man!” Sam said, swatting at the Wint--the--Buck? “We got a guest!”

“Oh,” he said, and gave her a little nod of acknowledgement. “Hey. But seriously, Wilson. The challah. This is important.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Tony, can you help this young lady? Sorry, what was your name?”

“Miriam,” she said faintly. “I’m... that’s me.”

Bucky perked up. “Miriam. One of the tribe? You saw the mezuzah?” 

“HAH!” Tony fist-pumped, then pointed gleefully at Sam. “I told you! I told you it would be useful! ‘Ohhh, this thing is too ostentatious, Tony, we couldn’t possibly, Tony--’”

Sam waved his hands for quiet, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. “Oy. We’re getting a little close to sundown, here. I’ve gotta help Bucky with the challah. How about you call Miriam’s friends for them, Tony?”

“I’d be glad to,” Tony says, and wow there’s another gorgeous smile. How do these people all have such amazing smiles? “But, brilliant idea? How about Miriam joins us? I’ll be happy to call your friends either way, of course, but--? How about it? Do you want to sit down for Shabbat dinner with a bunch of queers?” Tony gestured grandly, the movement looking as fabulous as it could on a man in a sweatshirt-sweatpants combo. 

“I don’t want to impose...”

“No, please!” Sam says immediately, earnest. “Please stay, we’d love to have you. You don’t have to, of course--you don’t know us, and I’d hate to make you at all uncomfortable.”

Bucky looked from Sam to Miriam, his gaze direct. After a moment, he put his arm around Sam’s waist and nodded. “You’re family. Of course you’re always welcome.”

It’s possibly the single most reassuring thing he could have said. 

“If you’re sure--”

“And we are,” Sam said.

“Then. Yeah, okay.”

“Okay!” Tony clapped his hands together. “Let’s get this party started!” He leaned back into the stairwell to holler, “Hey! Loser McPoorPants! Get down here, the sun’s setting!”

“Cutting it close today,” a woman with bright red hair said from her seat in the corner.

Everybody twitched. Miriam may have let out a squeak. That lady  _ definitely  _ hadn’t been there before. She was also  _ definitely  _ the Black Widow. Miriam’s brain made the mental equivalent of a keysmash.

“How the hell did you...” Tony trailed off, peeved. “Whatever. Whatever! Nat, meet our guest. Miriam, Nat. Nat, Miriam!  Wonderful. Now all we’re missing is the  _ slowest super soldier ever--!” _

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Heavy, quick footsteps, and then Steve Rogers came downstairs. Ze was wearing a long, floaty sundress with ballet flats. There was a little belt at hir waist that emphasized the width of hir shoulders. And oh, man. If only ze dressed like this for press conferences. “And we all woulda been here  _ sooner _ if someone hadn’t been  _ cheating _ \--”

“I assume you’re talking about yourself, Rogers?” Natasha asked with a small smile. 

Bucky pointed at Nat. “See.  _ She _ knows.”

Steve just grinned, a little too innocent.

“Pipe down!” Sam said, coming out of the kitchen with a covered basket and Bucky right on his heels. “Everyone here? To the table.” 

The bickering continued, quieting down as the Avengers ( _oh my gd, the Avengers_ ) gathered around. Sam gestured to the candles and their waiting matchbox. “When I was growing up, it was always the girls in the family who’d light the candles,” he said to Miriam. “So that’s how we do it here.” 

Steve and Natasha each took a match and struck it, in unison, a habit clearly born of long practice. Steve looked absentmindedly over at Miriam, then grinned and silently lifted hir match, tilting it towards her, offering to share. She smiled back. They held the match together, both of their hands lifting it up to one of the candles, hir purple nail polish glittering in the light of the small flame. 

And then Miriam sang the Shabbat blessings in a tiny kitchen in Brooklyn. With a bunch of  _ superheroes _ .

And, she was delighted to discover, Sam and Bucky celebrated with plenty of small family quirks. They used grape juice instead of wine (“Respect for Tony,” Sam mouths) and did a very silly version of the  _ hamotzi _ , putting emphasis on random words for no reason. They were all terrible at staying quiet between prayers, laughing and elbowing each other. Sam sang all the harmonies. Bucky and Sam fed each other pieces of challah. 

Tony grabbed Steve’s waist lightly and pulled hir close. “Bruce still isn’t coming?”

“No,” Steve sighed. “He couldn’t get here fast enough from California. These are all the Jewish Avengers on the East Coast right now.”

Miriam couldn’t take her eyes off them. Her brain kept trying to compare their faces with the ones she knew from news footage or history textbooks. But this--this was a whole other level of intimacy. Letting her see them like this. Steve Rogers in a terrible plaid shirt, giggling while ze poured wine for everybody and kissing Tony Stark full on the mouth, barely a foot away from her. Natasha Romanov’s hair curling and wet from the shower. Bucky Barnes bickering with Sam Wilson, all aggression and love, arguing over whether you should scoop the candlelight towards you or shield your eyes from it. 

  
Welcoming her into their home. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! Please feel free to leave comments, we love to read them :D


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